myself – will I be able to teach it
effectively?”.
Answer, “Yes! The unit is designed in
such a way that you, as the teacher are a
co-learner and you are provided with teacher
notes, plus the resources are mainly
web-based and are readily available. Most
importantly, you will find that you learn
with the students and make discoveries
with them.”
So teachers may depend entirely on
what an organisation, established for the
purpose of supporting and promoting the
pig meat industry, tells it. Is that the sort
of education we want in Australia?
The booklet refers glowingly to the
euphemistically-titled, Model Code of
Practice for the Welfare of Animals (Pigs).
Epitomising the world of political
doublespeak, the “welfare” code (reflected
in exemptions to state-based “prevention
of cruelty to animals” legislation) permits
the following horrendously cruel practices,
most of which apply routinely to the vast
majority of pigs used for food:
- life-long confinement indoors
- confinement in a sow stall, with
insufficient room to turn around, for up
to 16.5 weeks, day and night - confinement in a farrowing crate, with
insufficient room to turn around or
interact with piglets, for up to six
weeks, day and night- tail docking without anaesthetic
- ear notching without anaesthetic
- teeth clipping without anaesthetic
- castration without anaesthetic
APL’s so-called voluntary ban on sow
stalls, scheduled to commence this year
(and already implemented by many
member establishments but possibly
irrelevant to non-members), will still allow
them to be used for up to 11 days per
pregnancy, and will not be binding on
individual producers. In any event, the
ability to monitor compliance must be
questionable.
The industry has not indicated any
action in respect of farrowing crates, which
are even more restrictive than sow stalls.
In its educational material, APL states,
“A farrowing stall allows a sow to stand
up, lie down and stretch out...”. But they
cannot turn around. They cannot interact
with their piglets. They cannot behave
naturally. It sounds like hell on earth.
In his video appearance referred to
earlier, Ean Pollard says: “You may have
seen some footage that activists have
taken of sows [in sow stalls] that have
been woken up early in the morning, and
expected to be fed. And then when they
weren’t fed, they got upset. So how would
you feel if someone came into your
bedroom in the early hours of the morning
and woke you up.”
My answer is that I would not be happy,
but I’d be far less happy if I spent 24 hours
per day for 16 weeks locked in an indoor
cage that was so small, I couldn’t even
turn around. I would also not be happy
living my entire life indoors. Being woken
in the early hours would be the least of
my worries.
The booklet and first video also comment
on sustainability aspects of pig meat
production, with the issue said to be “the
dominant cross curriculum perspective”.
The booklet claims: “GHG [greenhouse
gas] emissions produced by the pork
industry are significantly lower than other
agricultural sectors, such as beef cattle,
dairy cattle and sheep”.
It’s amusing that they chose the highest-
emitting agricultural sectors to compare
themselves against.
The video also includes Edwina
Beveridge of Blantyre Farms demonstrating
some aspects of her establishment’s biogas
facility, whereby methane from effluent